TheSuzakuview of highly ionized outflows in AGN – II. Location, energetics and scalings with bolometric luminosity

Abstract

Ongoing studies with XMM-Newton have shown that powerful accretion disc winds, as revealed through highly-ionised Fe K-shell absorption at E 6.7 keV, are present in a significant fraction of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) in the local Universe (Tombesi et al. 2010a). In Gofford et al. (2013) we analysed a sample of 51 Suzaku-observed AGN and independently detected Fe K absorption in ∼ 40% of the sample, and we measured the properties of the absorbing gas. In this work we build upon these results to consider the properties of the associated wind. On average, the fast winds (v w > 0.01 c) are located r ∼ 10 15−18 cm (typically ∼ 10 2−4 r s ) from their black hole, their mass outflow rates are of the order Ṁ w ∼ 0.01 − 1 M yr −1 or ∼ (0.01 − 1)Ṁ Edd and kinetic power is constrained to L w ∼ 10 43−45 erg s −1 , equivalent to ∼ (0.1 − 10%)L Edd . We find a fundamental correlation between the source bolometric luminosity and the wind velocity, with v w ∝ L α bol and α = 0.4 +0.3 −0.2 (90% confidence), which indicates that more luminous AGN tend to harbour faster Fe K winds. The mass outflow ratė M w , kinetic power L w and momentum fluxṗ w of the winds are also consequently correlated with L bol , such that more massive and more energetic winds are present in more luminous AGN. We investigate these properties in the framework of a continuum-driven wind, showing that the observed relationships are broadly consistent with a wind being accelerated by continuum-scattering. We find that, globally, a significant fraction (∼ 85%) of the sample can plausibly exceed the L w /L bol ∼ 0.5% threshold thought necessary for feedback, while 45% may also exceed the less conservative ∼ 5% of L bol threshold as well. This suggests that the winds may be energetically significant for AGN-host-galaxy feedback processes.

Evidence for a radiatively driven disc-wind in PDS 456?

“…Thus the observed velocities can be easily reproduced within this framework. Note that a comparable positive cor-relation between the outflow velocity and luminosity has been recently found by Gofford et al (2015) and Fiore et al (2017), the latter from collating a sample of known AGN outflows.…”

NuSTAR View of the Black Hole Wind in the Galaxy Merger IRAS F11119+3257

“…Often, the implied velocity is very high, up to the mildly relativistic values of v out ;0.1 c for the so-called ultra-fast outflows (UFOs; e.g., Tombesi et al 2010Tombesi et al , 2011Tombesi et al , 2014Tombesi et al , 2015Gofford et al 2013;Longinotti et al 2015;Nardini et al 2015;Parker et al 2017). These winds are observable at sub-parsec scales from the central black hole, consistently with an accretion disk interpretation, and they seem to be powerful enough to have a substantial effect on the host galaxy environment (e.g., Tombesi et al 2012, Wagner et al 2013Gofford et al 2015;Nardini et al 2015).…”

The Complex Circumnuclear Environment of the Broad-Line Radio Galaxy 3c 390.3 Revealed by Chandra Hetg

“…A UFO with velocity v out ;0.15c was detected in 3C390.3 (Tombesi et al 2010bGofford et al 2013Gofford et al , 2015. The lower and upper limits on the distance, mass outflow rate, and mechanical power are d;0.002-0.02 pc,…”

“…The detection of WAs was reported in 3C382, 3C445, 3C390.3, and 4C+74.26 (Ballantyne 2005;Reeves et al 2009Reeves et al , 2010Torresi et al 2010Torresi et al , 2012. Moreover, UFOs have been reported in 3C111, 3C120, 3C390.3, 3C445, 4C +74.26, and Cygnus A (Tombesi et al 2010bBallo et al 2011;Braito et al 2011;Gofford et al 2013Gofford et al , 2015Reynolds et al 2015). A recent X-ray study of a sample of 26 radio galaxies reported that the frequency of UFOs is likely in the interval f; 50% ± 20% .…”